Citation

Liberman Z, Kinzler KD, Woodward AL. J. Exp. Psychol. Gen. 2014; 143(3): 966-971.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2014, American Psychological Association)

DOI

10.1037/a0034481

PMID

24059843

Abstract

Predicting others' affiliative relationships is critical to social cognition, but there is little evidence of how this ability develops. We examined 9-month-old infants' inferences about 3rd-party affiliation based on shared and opposing evaluations. Infants expected 2 people who expressed shared evaluations to interact positively, whereas they expected 2 people who expressed opposing evaluations to interact negatively. A control condition revealed that infants' expectations could not be due to mere perceptual repetition. Thus, an abstract understanding that 3rd-party affiliation can be based on shared intentions has roots in the 1st year of life. These findings have implications for understanding humans' earliest representations of the social world. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2013 APA, all rights reserved).

Language: en